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At first glance, it didn’t seem like a great Christmas for Paul Reid. Not the Paul Reid who runs the Health Services Executive, although with the number of Covid-19 cases above 1,000 for the first time in two months and a variant strain threatening to go crazy, it also can’t have been much fun. for him.
This namesake occupies the much more enviable position of Irish director of the company behind the world’s most coveted product. This Paul Reid worked on Christmas Eve, paused to swallow his Christmas Day dinner, and got up at dawn yesterday to go to his office in West Dublin. I wouldn’t have done it any other way.
“This is a once in a lifetime experience,” said Reid, head of Pfizer Ireland. “I would describe it as probably the biggest advance we’ve had in 100 years in medicine. It really is that significant.”
The first shipment of the highly anticipated Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine landed on Irish soil yesterday morning. Two modest thermal chargers or boxes shipped from the mainland. Five trays in each box, 195 vials in each tray, and five doses in each vial sufficient for approximately 9,750 vaccine injections.
The precious cargo was transported by road, with a discreet Garda presence, to the Health Services Executive’s National Cold Chain Center in Citywest.
There, the two Paul Reids, Health Minister Stephen Donnelly and several others were on site for the historic delivery of the vaccine before the boxes were placed in one of the nine ultra-low-temperature freezers that HSE purchased last month.
A second delivery of around 30,000 doses will possibly arrive tomorrow or Tuesday. Ireland will have 40,000 doses by the end of next week and at least 30,000 weekly doses every week after that, more as production increases.
“Sure enough, we should have 40,000 doses by the end of December. Then there will be another shipment this week and another in the week of January 4, another January 11 and so on. We will receive weekly shipments and volumes are never compromised until much more. close to shipping days. But the expectation is that, you know, we would get another roughly, you know, 32 trays, if you want to figure that out in doses, “he says in a video. call on Christmas Eve.
The HSE refused to allow media access to yesterday’s event, citing security reasons. The vaccine is so coveted that the international law enforcement agency, Interpol, issued an orange advisory recently warning governments that “criminal organizations” are “planning to infiltrate or disrupt supply chains.”
Reid says he has never worked on a product like that. Pfizer has already rejected numerous advances. “Yes, I am aware [of approaches]”He laughs. A typical example, he says, is” private sector companies “that” would be very interested in getting a vaccine if it were available for commercial sale privately. “They are denied passage.” You can’t even talk about money. You have to put it away immediately. You can see the challenges of making this vaccine. It will only be available through contracted government agencies. So it will be for the next six to eight months. Then we will review how vaccination launches are going in Europe and the availability of doses beyond that date. “
And no, Reid hasn’t been vaccinated yet. He and his other Pfizer colleagues wait in line, in line with the government’s plan to vaccinate the most vulnerable first.
“You can imagine we get a lot of questions from our own manufacturing sites here, in particular because they are essential workers and I am sure they would love to get the vaccine. But no, we will align with the guidelines coming from the National Covid Vaccination Task Force. -19, “he says.
Pfizer cannot produce the vaccine fast enough. As the first product to hit the market, Pfizer had planned to produce 100 million doses worldwide by the end of 2020, but reduced it to 50 million. Already rolled out in the UK and US, European regulators approved the vaccine last Monday and shipments arrived in Germany, Italy and France, as well as Ireland yesterday. Germany and Italy intend to start inoculating from today. Ireland will launch its first coup on December 30, but the roll-out to nursing homes won’t begin until January 11.
The Pfizer vaccine is very delicate. It must be stored and transported at minus 70 ° C and has several shelf lives. It can last in an ultra cold freezer for six months and in a regular refrigerator for five days. Once a vial is opened, the vaccine must be used within two hours. To ensure that no vaccine drops are wasted, vaccinators and vaccines must be ready and waiting when you arrive. The vaccine itself must be given in two doses, 21 days apart.
Pfizer will deliver directly to HSE’s storage depot at Citywest. After that, HSE takes care of the complicated logistics.
The HSE will ship the vaccine as needed across the country in “trucks and vans at two to eight degrees Celsius.”
“They [the HSE] have autonomy to decide how much [vaccine] They get out of the ultra-low temperature coolers, “he says. The HSE will have a deadline by which the vaccine must be used,” so they have to be very aware that they can enter the correct number of participants, vaccinate them quickly, and then follow go ahead, “he says.
If this sounds like a difficult task, Reid notes that the HSE “has a lot of experience in Ireland” in moving vaccines.
Given the accelerated production of the vaccine, there are many unknowns. Will the vaccine protect against the most transmissible British strain of the coronavirus that the medical director confirmed has reached Ireland?
“We don’t know yet, but we have every reason to believe that the vaccine will be effective for the other variants of the virus,” Reid says.
Transmission
There is not yet enough data to show whether the vaccine can stop transmission. “So until we see the data, until we have approval from regulators that the vaccine stops transmission, you must also take all other public health measures,” he says.
We also don’t know how long immunity will last, only time will tell. A small number of people have had allergic reactions to the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, prompting UK regulators to issue an advisory urging people with a history of allergic reactions not to get it.
Reid notes that the vaccine will be administered “under close medical supervision,” and said: “Anyone who has a history of allergic reactions should not get the vaccine. That will be on the license.”
The vaccine, like the virus it targets, is a work in progress, evolving as it goes.
“The main thing for us is that we have a vaccine that works. It is 95% effective, that’s incredible. When you look at the effectiveness, for nine and a half out of 10 people, it will be effective. That is in all participants, regardless of age, gender, race or ethnicity. You’ll see the same effectiveness. And it’s safe, too, “says Reid.
Reid adds that the biggest challenge for the health authority is gaining the trust of the public.
“I would say that one of the big jobs that we have to do as a country, and certainly for the HSE, is to try to ensure that people have the confidence to receive the vaccine.
“We really cannot afford to hesitate, given the critical situation of the pandemic. Anyone who decides not to get vaccinated is not only making a decision for themselves, their decisions will also affect their families and loved ones who live with them. Sure, say so. that if you have the opportunity to be vaccinated, you should take advantage of it.
“Trust the science. Trust the experts. If they’re recommending that this be effective and safe to use, that’s good enough for me.”
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